(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus which acquires and displays the biological data of a user. More specifically, it relates to an apparatus which acquires two kinds of biological data of a user and displays the data graphically.
(ii) Description of the Related Art
Apparatuses are proposed to acquire two kinds of biological data of a user and display them in a graph region whose vertical and horizontal axes represent these two kinds of biological data (refer to Patent Publications 1 to 4, for example).
An apparatus disclosed in Patent Publication 1 acquires the body mass index and body fat percentage of a user as the two kinds of biological data and displays the data in a graph region whose horizontal axis represents a body mass index and vertical axis represents a body fat percentage. To display the data, the vertical and horizontal axes are sectioned by given evaluation reference values so as to form a plurality of intersecting sections, and an intersecting section corresponding to the acquired body mass index and body fat percentage of the user is lit. Further, an apparatus disclosed in Patent Publication 2 or 3 acquires the body fat percentage and body weight of a user and displays the acquired data in a graph region whose axes represent the data. Further, an apparatus disclosed in Patent Publication 4 acquires the body mass index of a user and an index related to the fat mass or fat free mass of the user and displays the data in a graph region whose axes represent the data. In addition, in the apparatus of Patent Publication 4, comments corresponding to the acquired biological data of the user are displayed. These conventional apparatuses display two kinds of biological data of a user as an intersection point or an intersecting section in a graph region whose vertical and horizontal axes represent these two kinds of biological data so as to present a comprehensive guideline for health care to the user based on the two kinds of biological data.    Patent Publication 1
JP-A 10-192258 (the term “JP-A” as used herein means an “unexamined published Japanese patent application”)    Patent Publication 2
JP-A 2000-14828    Patent Publication 3
JP-A 2001-224569    Patent Publication 4
JP-A 2002-125947
In view of health care, a number of biological data have different meanings according to age. For example, a high body fat percentage at young age substantially warns a user of a possibility of developing lifestyle-related diseases, while a low body fat percentage at old age substantially warns a user of a possibility of becoming skinny due to aging. Further, in view of health care, understanding one's own biological data by comparing the biological data with those of others at the same age or in the same generation encourages gives the user encouragement and motivation to maintain or improve his health condition.
However, in the conventional apparatuses disclosed in Patent Publications 1 to 4, evaluation reference values which divide the graph regions and comments corresponding to the divided sections are constant regardless of the age of a user. Further, these apparatuses do not display information of how different the biological data of a user which are displayed in the graph regions are from those of others at the same age or in the same generation as that of the user. Thus, these apparatuses do not give sufficient consideration to the age of a user, and it can be therefore hardly said that these apparatuses are capable of presenting health care guidelines suited for users.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a biological data acquiring apparatus which acquires two kinds of biological data of a user and can display the acquired data in a graph region whose vertical and horizontal axes represent these two kinds of biological data in a manner taking the age of the user into consideration so as to present the user with a health care guideline which is more suited for the user.